Part 1 of a five-part series on what to keep in mind as you transition to the cloud: Security and Vendor Lock-In

Cloud computing can help address a multitude of issues caused by traditional IT departments, including inflated overhead and an inability to keep pace with changing technology. But anytime there are widespread changes, executives are concerned.

We meet business owners who have heard of cloud computing, whether through business channels, Internet sources, or TV commercials and who seem to grasp the basics of how it benefits them, but some are still hesitant: they don’t know what they don’t know.

If you’re either considering moving to the cloud or have already made the decision, but not yet made the change, we’ve come up with some factors to consider.

A recent report from Deloitte regarding the move to cloud computing entitled “CFO Insights: Heading for the Clouds” suggests two of the biggest concerns for executives today are security and vendor lock-in. Execs are naturally concerned about securing their vital business data. The Deloitte report, however, addresses the security issue in cloud computing directly, claiming:

“Generally, the level of computer security, data privacy practices and the expertise of major cloud service providers are likely to be greater than those provided by an in-house IT staff and systems. This makes the security concern less salient. Nevertheless, before moving data and applications to a cloud it is important to ensure the cloud provider has strong security and privacy policies in place.”

Martin Jones and Christian Sarkar of Business Management Review suggest that vendor lock-in is becoming less of an issue as well for the following three reasons:

“Business executives feel that they are already locked in by internal IT and the legacy vendors in the IT data-center

The immediate need for new business capabilities and agility of cloud implementations outweigh the lock-in doom and gloom scenario painted by IT

the financial aspect of cloud computing – “pay per use” – thus moving from capital expenditure to operational expenditure for IT investments – is an overwhelming advantage for many CFOs.”